Highly stable linearly polarized arbitrary temporal shaping of picosecond laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a highly stable, variable temporal shaping method for linearly polarized picosecond laser pulses with arbitrary shapes, enhancing applications in electron bunch generation and offering a simplified, cost-effective approach.

Contribution

It presents a novel birefringent stage-based shaping technique achieving high transmittance and stability, along with a double-pass method that simplifies the setup and reduces costs.

Findings

High transmittance and stability at specific phase delays

Capability to generate arbitrary pulse shapes

Simplified double-pass shaping method

Abstract

This paper reports the study and demonstration of a new variable temporal shaping method capable of generating linearly polarized picosecond laser pulses with arbitrary predefined shapes, which are highly desired by various applications including low emittance high brightness electron bunch generation in photocathode guns. It is found that both high transmittance and high stability of the shaped pulses can be achieved simultaneously when birefringent stages (BSs) are set at specific phase delay. Such variable temporal shaping technique may lead to new opportunities for many potential applications over a wide range of laser wavelengths, pulse repetition rates, time structures and power levels, etc. In addition, a new double-pass variable temporal shaping method is also proposed and could significantly simplify the shaper structure and reduce the cost.